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| Fornells |
Fornells is one of the best places in Menorca to leave the boat safely on a buoy as it is a very sheltered inlet with a good bus service. We decided to spend a few days here in order to visit places on the island, but ended up staying longer than we intended. We repeated the Peak Performance Buoyancy Control Adventure Dive with the local dive school, and this time the tuition was excellent. We dived in a very sheltered bay near Cabo Fornells where there is some wonderful under water rock formation and our instructor took us through a narrow tunnel and cave. He showed us the hiding place of a very large octopus and a moray eel. Roger also saw a Stingray.
We visited Mahon by bus one day and another day went to Es Mercadal, where we managed to buy a generator to boost our electricity supplies. We walked the 3 kilometers to the top of Monte del Toro, the highest point on Menorca.
Our intention was to leave on the Sunday, but when we woke in the morning the wind was too strong and the forecast was not good until the following Wednesday. There are some excellent very reasonably priced restaurants in Fornells, and after one evening meal Roger had the throttle on the dinghy too high when trying to turn the dinghy around, and we hit a small motor boat, which sent my bag flying, managing to drown my camera and two mobile phones, one of which was fairly new and expensive!
On Wednesday we got up early to sail the 50 miles to Mallorca but as we let go of the buoy, the engine died when Roger put the engine into gear. We managed to get back on the buoy which was not easy as there was quite a strong wind. We managed to lasso the buoy but could not get the rope through the eye from the boat, so I went into the water so Roger could pass me the rope. When Roger was putting the dinghy in the water, he let go of the painter and the dinghy was being blown away, so Roger had to jump in and swim for the dinghy. By now we had both had involuntary swims and it was feeling like a very bad day at the office! We went ashore to call an engineer, who came quite quickly. He altered the linkage on the gear lever, and everything seemed OK, but it was now too late to set off on such a long journey.
The next day we got up early again, let go of the buoy and the same thing happened! We were beginning to feel like we were in the film ‘Groundhog Day’. We called the engineer again, and he eventually discovered that as we increased the revs with the throttle, the cable was being pulled tight which was putting pressure on the cable from the pull lever stop switch and stopping the engine. Both cables are next to each other in my ‘linen’ cupboard and after we had done the laundry I had squeeze the sheets back into the cupboard and put pressure on the cables! We checked the weather and realized if we didn’t go straight away we would be stuck for a few more days, so we left about 2 p.m. We motor-sailed the 50 miles to Mallorca, at one time accompanied by a yellow wagtail who landed on our boat several times mid ocean for a rest. We arrived in Puerto de Pollensa about 11.30 p.m. where we picked up a buoy in the dark.
Fornells: Free buoys, shower 3 euros at Hostel La Palma, no WiFi, 2 Internet Cafes.
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